"A wise and frugal government...shall restrain men from injuring
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their
own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from
the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of
good government."

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Blue chips bounced back and the Nasdaq extended its gains Friday afternoon as a slide in oil prices combined with encouraging economic data to offset pressure from an Alcoa profit warning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was last up 4 points to 10,293 in afternoon trade, rebounding from a 56-point deficit. The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 20 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,889 and the S&P 500 added 4 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,122.

The bounce came as crude fell below $43 a barrel as traders assessed the threat of a hurricane to output in the Gulf of Mexico, tightening U.S. crude-oil inventories, and the potential for an OPEC output hike. October crude futures were last down $1.86 to $42.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. See Futures Movers.

"I think as you get closer to new highs on the S&P, the lingering concern would be that the Nasdaq is down substantially from its [early summer] high, which may put a little bit of a lid on stock prices given those divergences that are coming about," said Steve Goldman, chief market strategist at Weeden & Co.

The Commerce Department, meanwhile, said The U.S. trade deficit narrowed 8.9 percent to $50.1 billion in July -- the sharpest decline in the deficit since December 2001.

Elsewhere on the Dow, shares of Walt Disney climbed 0.7 percent on news its chief executive, Michael Eisner, plans to step down when his contract expires in September 2006.

Sep. 7--Like stocks, the price of gold has gyrated wildly all through 2004. But gold has rebounded over the past four months, outperforming stocks.

Some strategists believe that's not surprising given current conditions, with both markets responding in characteristic fashion.

Signs of a slower economy, a cresting in corporate profit growth, two Federal Reserve interest rate hikes with more to come, a heated presidential election and occasional terrorist alerts have combined to push stock market investors to the sidelines until the uncertainties are resolved.

Gold, meanwhile, has attracted at least some investors as a result of these uncertainties, according to analysts. Gold, they say, is a recognized safe haven and store of value in anxious times.

More than that, gold is special --- and more than a little mysterious.

It's used in jewelry and ornaments, resists corrosion, is highly malleable, is a good thermal and electrical conductor, is durable and storable, and is easily hidden.

Gold coins are a special case. The value of the gold content of a rare coin is less important than the coin's numismatic value. And that's based on a variety of factors such as scarcity, current condition and when it was minted.

Even so, the investment value of coins is important to many collectors, explained veteran rare coin dealer John Hamrick.

"It's amazing the number of people who collect coins and also think of the investment angle," said Hamrick, whose firm, John B. Hamrick & Co., is in Roswell.

Rare coins -- that includes non-gold varieties -- are a big-bucks enterprise. Collectors may spend millions of dollars on coins, which can run as high as $750,000 for a single coin.

Nevertheless, said Hamrick, this market has expanded briskly in recent years thanks to the Internet, which makes much more information available to buyers and investors.

So much for how. What about whether to invest in gold?

"I'm not a gold bug, but I think from time to time gold stocks can offer significant opportunities as a contrarian move or value play" said Marsh Douthat, president of Financial/Market Management in Atlanta.

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) - Tourists and residents throughout the Florida Keys were sent packing Thursday to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Ivan, even as millions of disaster-stricken residents struggled to pick up the pieces from Hurricanes Frances and Charley.

Forecasters said Ivan could reach the island chain as early as Sunday, making it the third hurricane to strike Florida in a month. The last time three hurricanes hit Florida in single season was 1964.

Ivan reached 160 mph at one point Thursday, and has already killed at least 16 people as it tore through the Caribbean on its steady march toward the Florida coast.

The evacuation orders in the Keys signaled the frightening reality that Florida faces as it deals with the prospect of yet another hurricane strike.

"This is getting ridiculous," said Eleanor Sharkey, who lives with four grandchildren in West Palm Beach and who had her roof torn apart and power knocked out by Frances. "I'm petrified, just petrified. Oh God, I need help. I have no milk. I can't get proper food. I have nothing nourishing for the children. When will this end?"

While forecasters view the Keys as Ivan's prime target, the storm could shift to anywhere in Florida and possibly all the way up to South Carolina. Gov. Jeb Bush said he was not working with a "doomsday scenario" in preparing for Ivan, but added that officials and residents have no choice but to prepare for a third hurricane.

BESLAN, / WHEATON (ANS) -- Prayer and memorial services were underway in Russia and the United States after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Monday and Tuesday as national days of mourning for the hundreds of people who died in the hostage drama of School No. 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia.

Russian Ministries, a U.S. backed Christian aid organization working in the devastated region, said two of its Russian pastors who lost children in the tragedy would lead a group memorial service in Beslan on Tuesday, September 7.

Pastors Sergey and Taymuraz Totiev, two brothers, "had eight children" among the hostages. "Of the eight children, two are injured, one has died, and five remain unaccounted for," Russian Ministries said.

It was not immediately clear if the Totievs' had managed to reach a nearby hospital to search for these children, after previous attempts reportedly failed as Russian security sealed off Beslan to hunt down alleged hostage takers.

But Russian medical workers have already warned those parents still missing children against keeping to much hope, as at least 335 people, half of them children, are officially known to have died during the bloodbath on Friday, September 3, that ended a near three-day siege of the Russian school.

MANY PEOPLE MISSING

However some medical workers have claimed they counted close to 400 victims, and many people are reportedly still unaccounted for.

Many victims can no longer be recognized because of the blaze that accompanied the gun battle between Russian troops storming the school and militants demanding independence for Chechnya, medical workers said.

During Tuesday's memorial service in the small southern town of 30,000, American believers will hold a similar prayer service in the Russian Ministries headquarters at 1415 Hill Avenue in Wheaton, Illinois, from 8.30 AM local time, the organization said in a statement on its Internet website seen by ASSIST News Service (ANS).

It's a story sending chills through every parent with a child in school, the tragic outcome of the terrorist siege in Russia. Several hundred children, teachers and parents were taken hostage by armed gunmen in their school building on Wednesday. Two days later, there was gunfire, explosions and disaster.

Commandos stormed the school, and reports are that more than 100 people were killed. What if a terrorist attack affected an American school? Are there plans in place to protect the nation's children?

It's morning in suburban Tampa, Fla., and a routine sets in. Kids are off to school and many moms and dads are already at work. The flag goes up, the pledge is said and it's quickly down to business.

But on May 27 of last year, that routine was shattered. A deadly cloud of ammonia gas was released from a pipeline near two schools. Hundreds of children were at risk. Initially, the fear was terrorism.

Although it later proved to be a minor incident, it was a major test for the Hillsborough County School district, and it raises the question: Just how well prepared are the nation's schools to deal with a terrorist event?

That's the question journalist Steven Brill is asking. Brill, who wrote a book on the lessons of 9/11, is launching the America Prepared Campaign, with the help of a private grant. The campaign's mission is to encourage Americans to plan in case of a terrorist attack.

As part of the campaign, America Prepared is releasing a report on its Web site, looking at whether the 20 largest school districts in the country are following federal guidelines which advise school systems to make sure that aside from addressing general emergencies, they deal with the possibility of terrorism.

As part of the campaign, America Prepared is releasing a report on its Web site, looking at whether the 20 largest school districts in the country are following federal guidelines which advise school systems to make sure that aside from addressing general emergencies, they deal with the possibility of terrorism.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The United States and its allies have moved closer to capturing Osama bin Laden in the last two months, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said in a television interview broadcast Saturday.

"If he has a watch, he should be looking at it because the clock is ticking. He will be caught," Joseph Cofer Black, the U.S. State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, told private Geo television network.

Asked if concrete progress had been made during the last two months - when Pakistan has arrested dozens of terror suspects including some key al-Qaida operatives - Black said, "Yes, I would say this."

An extremist Islamic movement in Britain plans a convention in London titled, "The Choice is in Your Hands: Either You're with the Muslims or with the Infidels," to mark the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

As WorldNetDaily reported, last year the group, Al-Muhajiroun, had planned a similar anniversary event called "The Magnificent 19 [Suicide Attackers]," but canceled it at the last minute.

The group's leader Omar Bakri, a Syrian residing in London, told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat the convention would feature al-Qaida "surprises," with the screening of a never-before-shown video, reports the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.

He said the convention will focus on "the anniversary of the division of the world into two great camps -- the camp of faith and the camp of unbelief," and would take place Sept. 11 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Bakri added: "On this day, we will talk about the ramifications of these [9-11] operations for Afghanistan and Iraq ... . We want the world to remember this operation ... that lifted the head of the [Muslim] nation."

Bakri called 9-11 "a cry of Jihad against unbelief and oppression" and said the aim of remembering it is to "revive the commandment of Jihad among the youth of the [Muslim] nation."

Bakri said the convention also will feature a lecture about the Islamic religious roots of "slaughtering the infidels," referring in part to the beheading of foreigners in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

"Terrorists still hope to disrupt the U.S. democratic process even though the presidential nominating conventions and other high-profile gatherings this summer went off without incident, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

"Threat reporting over the last several months has been "consistent, general and credible" and indicated the al-Qaida network is trying to push ahead with its plans, Ridge said. Although large events this summer were not attacked, he said, "that in no way diminishes the level of vigilance, awareness and concern that we have during this entire process." FULL STORY

What have YOU done to protect your home, family, community
and finances?

According to surveys, only 1/3 of Americans have done anything,
yet this is a simple and safe way to show your support for our
President, our military and our local "first-responders" to
potential emergencies -- including terrorism.

As the 3rd anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy arrives, financial
terrorism is one of the America's most vulnerable, "soft
targets."

Therefore, I recommend that all Americans take five basic
steps of emergency preparation, outlined in our new, free-to-the-public,
educational DVD... CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO COUNTER-TERRORISM

P.S."Reagan film to challenge 'Fahrenheit 9/11'" -WND- A stirring theatrical film hailing Ronald Reagan's victory over communism and setting the context for the current threat to world peace is planned for release Oct. 1, 2004.IN THE FACE OF EVIL - Watch Trailer

Three years later, it's still insensitive to speak openly and directly about how Sept. 11, 2001, transformed the investment climate.

But the tragedy that killed roughly 3,000 innocent people, destroyed New York's World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon also left an unmistakable legacy for investors -- an omnipresent element of risk that has kept stock markets from rebounding as vigorously as consumer confidence and the economy. On this third anniversary of 9/11, there is little evidence that the terrorism discount is going away.

"There is a genuine concern out there that we could all wake up the next morning and something has happened and the market could go down 20% or 25% instantly," said Alfred Marcus, a business school professor at the University of Minnesota.

To be sure, the U.S. stock market has recovered from its post-9/11 swoon. Three years after 9/11, the Dow stands 7% above its Sept. 10, 2001, close. The S&P 500 is just 2% higher while the Nasdaq Composite has gained 12% -- albeit after a devastating peak-to-trough decline during the bear market of 2000-02.

But this progress has been indirect and relatively restrained. During the same three years, the recession ended -- with GDP now having expanded for 11 consecutive quarters, including by 7.4% in the third quarter of 2003 -- while corporate profits rose to record levels. The reported earnings of the S&P 500 totaled $56.10 per share over the past 12 months, 52% higher than the $36.79 reported in the four quarters before 9/11, according to Standard & Poor's.

And the yield on the Treasury's 10-year note, which goes down when bond prices gain, has dropped to 4.20% from 4.84% the day before the attacks. The fed funds rate dropped from 3.5% prior to 9/11 to as low as 1% in June 2003, where it remained until the Fed's rate hike in June.

The market's lack of pop despite such positives reflects a reassessment of risk in the wake of the Internet bubble. The S&P 500 was trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 37 at the end of June 2001. The ratio was less than 20 three years later, and the market has traded down since then. Not surprisingly, onetime dot-com darlings such as Internet Capital Group and Priceline.com are among the worst performers in the past three years. (Conversely, security outfits such as Viisage Technology, Magal Security and Kroll, which is being acquired by Marsh & McLennan, are among the best performers since 9/11.)

As P/Es have come down, the price of oil has risen, although as much as $10 a barrel of the rise may reflect a "terrorism premium."

Money has also chased real estate. Mortgage debt has increased by $2.1 trillion since 2000 to almost $6.9 trillion at the end of the first quarter, according to the Fed.

What could alleviate some of the fear and bring money out from under the mattress and back into the equity market? Professor Marcus says stability in Iraq, with a diminished U.S. role, would help. But don't stay up waiting for the capture of Osama bin Laden, he says. That might only provoke more attacks. And although the market rallied after Saddam Hussein's capture last December, those gains all but evaporated over the summer.

It has become a cliche to say "everything changed" after 9/11, but there's evidence to suggest it's true. Beyond the immeasurable personal tragedy of the attacks, the price of fear in the aftermath continues to extract its toll on all of us as reflected in the retreat from risk that sometimes ebbs, but remains ever present.

Accounting firm Deloitte is trying to position itself to play a part in the potentially lucrative Islamic finance market ­with the unusual selling point that "sharia-compliant" banking is not just for Muslims.

There might seem to be a contradiction in a profit-driven western company such as big-four firm Deloitte embracing the devout Islamic ideology which prohibits "making money from money," since that sounds a lot like an accountant's job description.

But the professional services firm's move is in line with international trends which have seen a growth in finance companies which comply with sharia or Islamic law.

The boom has been driven by non-Muslim financiers such as the US' Citigroup which set up subsidiary Citi Islamic Bank and UK-listed HSBC, with its Islamic subsidiary Amanah. Swiss-based UBS has Noriba, while the UK last month granted a licence to its first Islamic bank.

Deloitte already has a thriving Islamic finance practice based in Malaysia headed by a Briton who converted to Islam, David Vickery, but it is now setting up New Zealand Islamic finance services overseen by financial sector head Ian Perry, a non-Muslim.

Deloitte is not alone is realising the Islamic approach to finance has quite a bit to recommend it, even for mainstream customers.

"It's basically just venture capitalism ­ it's about sharing risk" University of Otago management school lecturer Malcolm Cone, a specialist in Muslim business practices, explained.

Islamic finance offers products that are compatible with the Koran, which teaches that paying or charging interest is "riba" ­ usurious or immoral.

Instead of charging interest, the risk and the profits are shared between the bank and the borrower.

Conventional European banks will vary interest rates over time in a financial instrument such as a mortgage, but in the sharia-compliant type of mortgage the amount to be paid over the entire life of the loan, 20 years or whatever, will be agreed upfront.

The agreement of how the profit gets divvied up between lender and borrower is clearly stated from the outset of the transaction.

TERRORISTS are striving to acquire and then use nuclear weapons against the United States. Success, as defined by Osama bin Laden, would be four million dead Americans. Mounting evidence makes this much abundantly clear. Documents discovered in Afghanistan seem to reveal Al Qaeda's detailed knowledge of nuclear weaponry, while intelligence confirms the terrorists' attempts to acquire nuclear material on the black market.

In reaction, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry are giving pride of place to catastrophic terrorism in their foreign policy platforms. Both proclaim it the nation's No. 1 security challenge. Meanwhile, policy analysts have urgently recommended preventive measures in a flurry of reports, books, journal articles and Congressional testimony.

Now the Harvard scholar Graham Allison is sounding his own warning in ''Nuclear Terrorism'' -- a well-written report for general readers on the threat and what it will take to reduce it. He addresses all the big questions: who could be planning an attack; how they might acquire and deliver the weapons; when they might launch the first assault. Allison touches on chemical and biological dangers, but he separates out the far more lethal nuclear threat for special attention. Nonnuclear radioactive (''dirty'') bombs and chemical or biological devices would kill in the thousands. A 10-kiloton nuclear bomb, delivered to Times Square by truck and then detonated, could kill up to one million New Yorkers.

Some experts think a terrorist attack with nuclear weapons is already unstoppable. Allison disagrees -- up to a point. He argues that prevention is still possible, and he gives the Bush administration some credit for several post-9/11 initiatives meant to tighten the security of nuclear weapons and material. However, he calls for far bolder measures, more money and forceful American leadership to improve what is at present rather lax international cooperation. His bottom line is blunt: anything less will make nuclear terrorism inevitable.

Allison blames both the White House and the Congress for falling short of meeting the challenge. To take one example, since 9/11 the rate of funding has hardly changed for the Nunn-Lugar program, which was established to destroy or secure Russia's enormous stockpile of fissile material and nuclear weapons. Much remains to be done. Of special concern is Russia's large supply of suitcase-size nuclear bombs, which terrorists could smuggle into the United States in cargo containers or as airline baggage. The safeguards on these weapons are loose at best. (In 1997, Russia acknowledged that 84 of some 132 such weapons were missing.)

In no area of American life has the Republican Party more callously and braggdociously disregarded the U.S. Constitution than in the area of education. How do I know that Federal-funding of education is un-Constitutional? Because, repeatedly, before the Bush Presidency, the Republicans told me so. Just kidding --- I already knew this.

The 1996 GOP Platform called for the abolition of the Federal Department of Education which, with Mr. Bush's approval, now spends more than $60 billion annually. The 2000 GOP Platform said, in part:
"We recognize that under the American Constitutional system, education is a state, local and family responsibility, not a federal organization (emphasis mine)….The Republican Congress rightly opposed attempts by the Department of Education to establish federal testing that would set the stage for a national curriculum."

In an interview on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" TV show on March 22, 2001, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) said, when the subject was raised: "Well, to be honest, I'm one of those guys who can't find education in the Constitution as a function of the Federal Government."

Fast-forward to the recent GOP Convention in New York City. In his remarks to this gathering, Secretary Of Education Rod Paige praised our country as being, among other things, "defined by our founders" --- who, of course, authorized no role for the Federal Government in education. He noted that "no nation can sustain its greatness unless it educates its citizens." No "nation," of course, "educates" anybody because no "nation" has any children.

Paige said, with a straight face, that under the Bush Administration: "States, not Washington, set standards." But, in the same breath, he points out that Mr. Bush's Teddy Kennedy-designed "No Child Left Behind Act" "raises the bar for all students….Now schools are held accountable for making real progress."

Well, excuse me, sir, but when Washington, as it does under the Bush Administration, decides where the educational "bar" is to be set, this sounds like Washington setting the standard. When our government-run schools are "held accountable" by Washington, as they are under the Bush Administration, and Washington defines what constitutes "real progress," this sounds like Washington setting the standard.

In his talk, in which he bragged that Federal "support for education under President Bush has gone up 36 percent," Paige said, quoting Yogi Berra: "You can check that out." He said, obviously referring to the need to re-elect Mr. Bush, that in this year's election for President, in terms of education, "there is only one choice."

But, what Mr. Bush and Secretary Paige need to "check out" is the U.S. Constitution which in no way authorizes any kind of Federal role in education --- none! And there is not just "one choice" in this year's Presidential election concerning education. There is the choice of the Constitution Party and its Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees, respectively, myself and Dr. Chuck Baldwin. Vote for us and we promise to obey the Constitution not only when it comes to education but in every other area of American life, too.

While I do not recognize Islam as a valid extension of the worship and ways of the God of Abraham, as they claim, I do recognize that there are many Moslems who are attempting to live genuinely godly lives. Many are sincere, thoughtful, moral believers who reject and even deny the historically violent beginnings which Mohammed gave to the world in the name of truth. Our common fallenness as human beings being what it is, I am sure that there are Moslems whom I would appreciate in many ways more than those of us who claim Christ as our Savior and Lord.

President Bush and his administration have bent over backwards in the current war to show honor and respect for reasonable Moslems who likewise reject what they also recognize as the violent and unreasoned savagery of the fundamentalist workers of jihad. Caught between what the Administration perceives as the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion, civil respect for religious differences, and the real politick of not unnecessarily awakening a “religious war” between Western Christianity and global Islam, the spokesmen for America have walked on eggs to avoid rhetorical offense in any way. Alas, it remains to be seen how such placation will work in separating the various violent groups of Islam from the “moderates” whom they trust will side with us against their Moslem brothers.

Indeed, the historical expansionist core of Islam has conquered by the sword, and that spirit has not been exorcised from its center. Whatever that is, it will become evident in time.

What I cannot understand, except in the context of a Western culture that is rejecting its own historic Judeo-Christian roots under the delusion of “political correctness,” is the flood of apologies for the Christian crusades and the like, with no apparent need to balance the ledgers with Islam’s record of physical aggression. The crusades were ill advised, politically foolish, contrary to historic Christian values, and peppered with atrocities. The “Great Children’s Crusade” was especially barbaric, leaving some forty thousand Christian children dead, maimed, disillusioned, or sold into slavery by their Moslem captors. It was horrible.

Capturing the Holy Land for Christ was a theologically absurd idea since the whole earth is the Lord’s, as the scripture repeatedly reminds us.

Beyond our own historical absurdities, let’s talk about Islam. Birthed in religious civil war and blood, whole cities and people groups were told to convert or die. History cannot be “cleansed” and re-written to fit a politically correct revisionist agenda. The Moors viciously pillaged Spain and left a permanent occupying force for hundreds of years until literally beaten back by the sword. When will the Islamic leaders apologize for that? How about the Ottoman Empire as it slashed its Islamic Jihad deep into the European East and westwardly reached the outskirts of Vienna? Multiple tens of thousands died or were sold as slaves. Hello. Whom do we see about that?

Today, the Sudanese Arab Moslems have waged a war of horrific genocide against black African Christians. It is an historic disgrace the way Western nations have not intervened. Was it because it was blacks being slaughtered, or Christians being slaughtered, or both?

Political correctness appears to be an overt political agenda designed to gut the Western world and persuade it to commit cultural suicide. Let’s tell it like it is and deal with historical reality. “Political correctness” is the culture war in another form, and that's... THE BOTTOM LINE!

http://www.gostrategic.org

9-11 PRAYERS

"We never know when we, too, will be called into eternity. I doubt if even one of those people who got on those planes, or walked into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon that morning thought it would be the last day of their lives."